Brian McLaren: Frank’s New Book Is “Beautiful…A Visual and Musical Feast…”

I am one of thousands (millions?) who became a devotee of Francis Schaeffer in the 1970’s. Escape from Reason, The God Who is There, He is There and He is Not Silent, True Spirituality, Pollution and the Death of Man … I devoured everything he wrote. For a generation of young fundamentalists like me, Schaeffer was our gateway into the world of philosophy and art. He told us we could use our brains, that we could take art, literature, and film seriously, that the counter-culture had some things right …

I remember feeling … dismayed, I suppose is the word for it … when Schaeffer became an apologist for the Religious Right. Had he been co-opted, or had he sold out … or was he really in league with Robertson, Falwell, and their fellow culture warriors?

I think it was in Francis’ book A Christian Manifesto where I felt especially alarmed. As I recall, he held up Oliver Cromwell (!) as a spiritual hero of sorts, and there were intimations of armed rebellion against the government, wrapped in talk of “lex rex” versus “rex lex.” (In fact, I remember in the early 80’s hearing about “Christian Militia” in the deep south who were training in weaponry, inspired by Schaeffer to prepare for war.)

I also was a fan of Francis and Edith Schaeffer’s son, Frank. His A Time for Anger made me laugh out loud and introduced me to a master of the art of rant. Years later, I read Frank’s Calvin Becker trilogy (Portofino, Zermatt, and Saving Grandma) and (this is an old English major speaking) I still feel they are three of the most delightful and insightful novels I’ve ever read. His “And God said, ‘Billy!‘” was also quite powerful, reminiscent of the great Walker Percy’s Love in the Ruins, but even more God-haunted.

Frank and I became friends through Wild Goose Festival, where we’re two of the resident grandpas walking around, thrilled to see honest young people passionate about justice and an authentic spirituality in an era of so much crass religious crap. (Frank would have used much more vivid diction in the preceding sentence.)

When Letter to Lucy became available, I was one of the first to download it … which suggests one of many unique things about the book. It’s best read on an IPad or other digital device, the bigger the screen and the higher the resolution, the better, because this book isn’t simply a feast of words … it’s a visual and musical feast as well.

This is Frank’s ode to beauty, his theology of beauty if you will, because like many of us, Frank has let go of so much that he inherited from fundamentalism, but he hasn’t let go of the pearl of great price … a deep reverence and passionate love for beauty, which for Frank, is the best and most trustworthy signature or trace of the divine that we have.

One feels Frank’s grandchildren, especially Lucy, present on every page, because he is writing for them, not to them as much as for their benefit. He acknowledges the megatons of crass religious crap that are being spread liberally on us all by the bigly (believe me!) dispersal fan of Donald Trump; Frank challenges us not to surrender to that political and religious shower of stench, but to defy it by seeking beauty in the ugliest of administrations.

Through beauty – in forms from jazz to classical, from sculpture to film, from children’s literature to Shakespeare – we can survive these times, and build a better world for our grandchildren on the other side, Frank argues.

But he doesn’t just argue. He demonstrates. So when he mentions a great piece of jazz, you can click and listen. When he mentions a great piece of sculpture, you can see a photograph of it on the page. He lets us sample the ways he is enriching the lives of his grandchildren.

Along the way, he talks about his family, his upbringing, his faults and mistakes, his misadventures in the rumbling bowels of the Religious Right. At times he’s furious, at times, hilarious … but throughout, he’s as sincere as a furiously loving grandfather can be, and that passionate sincerity is downright … evangelical, in the absolute best and lower-case sense of the word.

Yes, Frank has joyfully left fundamentalism/evangelicalism behind, but he is still an evangelist … of beauty, which signals goodness, which points to truth. And in this, he shows that he has not betrayed his parents at all; rather, he has found the heart of what they loved most in Christianity and in God (remember Edith’s Hidden Art?) … and he is setting it free from the tacky religious duct tape in which it was bound.

This is a beautiful book, and I recommend it to all who yearn for liberation from what religion and politics have become in the age of Trump, Fascism, and Lies. Buy it (download it) here.

That rich coming from someone such as yourself who is so actively and vehemently opposed to every once of Truth the Bible contains along with despising the very words of God , Christ and the Apostles in both your words and actions along with your ongoing campaign of fear , hatred and lies as well as false accusations and condemnations towards everyone and everything not like yourself as you march in lock step to the tune of the father of lies

But for your edification … not that learning is within your very limited fear addled skill set mind you ;

Though one may rightly consider Mr McLaren and his emergent theology to be abhorrent Christianity verging on the heretical …by the very definition of the word he is anything but an infidel .

By the way … interesting that in your abject fear and hatred of all things Islam you would chose to use a term now almost exclusively used by radical Islam in the 20th – 21st century having long been abandoned by almost all within Christianity … hmmm …..

And once again in direct violation of the very scripture you claim to love you pass judgment on another’s salvation . You truly do hate every Word in the Bible … don’t you !

FYI little man .. I stated clearly that at worst McLaren’s emergent theology is on the verge of being heretical .. not that he is a heretic . Yet another term you have no concept as to the meaning and definition of

…. how ironic that you not only usurp a word almost exclusively used and popularized by a radical Islam which by your own words you both hate and despise .. but that you then try and justify your hypocrisy with misinformation and lies claiming a word to be in the Bible that is not .

As for 2nd Cor 6;15 ( the correct word is unbeliever ) and 1st Tim 5;8 ( and again .. unbeliever in all ten translations including two Roman Catholic versions ) …. which translation … the New American Hypocrites and Heretics Version ? Or perhaps the Make the Bible White Again American Standard ?

Proving once again Bryson that the only liar and Biblical heretic among us .. is you

Too bad you never learned how to read for yourself rather than resorting to your Twitter / Facebook feed .

2nd Cor 6;15 ( the correct word is unbeliever ) and 1st Tim 5;8 ( and again .. unbeliever in all ten translations including two Roman Catholic versions ) …. so in which translation … the New American Hypocrites and Heretics Version ? Or perhaps the Make the Bible White Again American Standard ?

Proving once again Bryson that the only liar and Biblical heretic among us .. is you . In as far the word infidel is concerned ,,, might I suggest looking up the definition of the word in a dictionary before continuing on with your heretical and hypocritical flatulence

Too bad you never learned how to read for yourself rather than resorting to your Twitter / Facebook feed .

The King James version uses “infidel” in those verses I cited. According to the KJV, you are wrong about the word not being in the Bible. By the way, I use only the King James Version. I am not familiar with other translations.

1) ” King James Version ” got a copy as well as a KJ concordance right in front of me … wrong !

Unbelievers is the word used .. the correct translation that is …

2) ” Infidels are unbelievers ” Wrong again Bubba Bryson .. look it up … infidels are those who either stand against a given faith .. or believe in nothing at all ( as in atheists ) by both Jewish Christian as well as Muslim definitions … not unbelievers

And … by correct Islamic definition according to the Koran .. versus radical Islam’s heretical definition .. … neither a Christian nor a Jew is to be considered an infidel … they/we are ” Of the Book ” and to be treated with respect

By the way … how long’d it take you to find that vapid and inaccurate definition of infidel on your Twitter/Facebook feed ?

Sigh ..so far Bryson you are at about 0 for 100 … care to go for a 110 ?

Of course you do little man . But assuming you might … what is it … your ancient long dead great grandmothers edition that was put to rest decades ago by every Christian Church across the globe due to the inherit errors in the original Koine Greek/Aramaic to English translations ?

Ahhh … but what ever it takes to get you thru the day little man . Be it lies , heresy , hypocrisy , treason or just plain ole stupidity we can all rest easy regardless of our final destination that you’re already living in a hell of your own making consumed by fear and addled by victimhood

dk,
The same Bible that worked for my great grandmother, and for every English speaking Christian since 1611, still works for me. I understand those who consider themselves to be “educated” and “contemporary” don’t like the King James Version, and I wouldn’t expect you to. I don’t expect to see you in Heaven either. LOL!!!

Oh will you look at that ! Now the little troll’s using abbreviations in the futile attempt to masque his pre-adolescent attempts at insult … ending with the every popular among thirteen year old little girls Lol .. punctuated of course in a moment of abject immaturity with multiple !!!

” dk,
The same Bible that worked for my great grandmother, and for every English speaking Christian since 1611, still works for me. I understand those who consider themselves to be “educated” and “contemporary” don’t like the King James Version, and I wouldn’t expect you to. I don’t expect to see you in Heaven either . LOL !!! ”

What I said little man is that the KJ has been revised over the years because of the blatant translation errors in the original KJ of 1611 … due to the lack of knowledge available at the time of Koine Greek and the Aramaic and in fact was so limited as to contain multiple errors and mistranslations … including their use of Infidel when in fact the correct translation is … unbeliever .

Not that there’s anything wrong with the revised versions ..

But hey … if you prefer to read a translation riddled with errors .. no surprise really in light of the fact that your entire existence is one long lengthy string of errors .. as evidenced by your each and every word

BTW … in light of the overall stupidity of this last comment of yours … I’m upping to total to a solid 150 ..

Ah… Yes! The F*ING bible! A totally fabricated compilation of murder, corruption, homophobia, bestiality, incest, and cruelty. Which, as far as I am concerned, isn’t even worth the paper it is printed on, and should instead be recycled to be used as toilet tissue. Or better yet … BURNED for all the pain and suffering it has caused! Seriously!!! If what is written in the “bible” is truly god’s word, and all the ills and evils of the world are really god’s will … then by default… god must be a Satan mongering fornicating despot! Good for me that I am agnostic, and as such, I am not afraid to burn in hell. So don’t even try your perverted threats of gloom and doom on me Gary Neil Bryson, because I know who and what you are, and where you live. And what is clear to me is that you are nothing more than a soulless sadistically self-righteous narcissistic 75-year-old fart, with absolutely NO empathy for anyone, and nothing better to do with your pathetic life than getting off on trolling the Internet, to satisfy your wretched need for power!

People like you disgust me to the core! Personally, I just can’t wrap my mind around how can anyone with a conscience condemn abortion on the one hand, and yet on the other justify babies being snatched from their mother’s arms and thrown ALIVE into a burning fire by Buddhists, for no other reason than being born to Muslim parent as for example is happening right now day in and day out in Myanmar. That anyone would justify such atrocities torture, genocide, and ethnic cleansing, claiming that it’s written in the “bible” and turn their backs on the suffering of millions of people, is sickening and beyond depraved!

That you would sit there, and smugly pontificate yourself as being holier than thou, spewing hatred and condemnation towards all those who do not follow your chosen lifestyle, is not so much about “religion” per say, as it is about being an immoral and arrogant self-entitled sociopathic authoritarian, who uses the “bible” for the pursuit of deviant power-tripping self-gratification. So please do us all a favor, and STOP patronizing others with your tyrannical views, because all you are accomplishing is exposing your degenerate nature, lack of integrity and overbearing stupidity for all to see.

In all honesty, it just boggles my mind how ignorant some of these bible thumpers really are. For crying out loud, we share more than 98% of our DNA with chimpanzees! Which makes us nothing more than evolved apes who are barely in the infancy stages of our understanding of the complexities of our universe. To believe otherwise is preposterously beyond arrogant! Personally, I feel that religion is the biggest evil of mankind! As Christopher Hitchens (world renowned atheist) once said: “Religion is a totalitarian belief. It is the wish to be a slave. It is the desire that there be an unalterable, unchallengeable, tyrannical authority, which can convince you of thought crimes while you are asleep, who must subject you to total surveillance around the clock every waking and sleeping minute of your life from before you are born and even worse after you are dead… In other words, a celestial North Korea which is, in essence, a necropsy at its core…”

But whatever! If there really is such a thing as “Judgment Day” … Then it is certainly reserved for those who advocate and endorse cruelty! Such as this sick F*CK that goes by the name of Gary Neil Bryson, who hails from Winston-Salem North Carolina. THE seat, of bible thumping White Supremacist non-Christian Evangelicals Drumph supporting scum!

And here are a few more quotes from Christopher Hitchens:

“The person who is certain, and who claims divine warrant for his certainty, belongs now to the infancy of our species.” ~God Is Not Great

“What happens to the faith healer and the shaman when any poor citizen can see the full effect of drugs or surgeries, administered without ceremonies or mystifications? Roughly the same thing as happens to the rainmaker when the climatologist turns up, or to the diviner from the heavens when schoolteachers get hold of elementary telescopes.” ~God Is Not Great

“Religion comes from the period of human prehistory where nobody—not even the mighty Democritus who concluded that all matter was made from atoms—had the smallest idea what was going on. It comes from the bawling and fearful infancy of our species and is a babyish attempt to meet our inescapable demand for knowledge (as well as for comfort, reassurance, and other infantile needs). Today the least educated of my children knows much more about the natural order than any of the founders of religion.” ~God Is Not Great

“The Bible may, indeed does, contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride-price, and for indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals.” ~God Is Not Great

“Religion has run out of justifications. Thanks to the telescope and the microscope, it no longer offers an explanation of anything important. Where once it used to be able, by its total command of a worldview, to prevent the emergence of rivals, it can now only impede and retard—or try to turn back—the measurable advances that we have made. Sometimes, true, it will artfully concede them. But this is to offer itself the choice between irrelevance and obstruction, impotence or outright reaction, and, given this choice, it is programmed to select the worse of the two. Meanwhile, confronted with undreamed-of vistas inside our own evolving cortex, in the farthest reaches of the known universe, and in proteins and acids which constitute our nature, religion offers either annihilation in the name of god, or else the false promise that if we take a knife to our foreskins, or pray in the right direction, or ingest pieces of wafer, we shall be “saved.” ~God Is Not Great

“If god really wanted people to be free of [wicked thoughts], he should have taken more care to invent a different species.” ~God Is Not Great
“By trying to adjust to the findings that it once tried so viciously to ban and repress, religion has only succeeded in restating the same questions that undermined it in earlier epochs. What kind of designer or creator is so wasteful and capricious and approximate? What kind of designer or creator is so cruel and indifferent? And—most of all—what kind of designer or creator only chooses to “reveal” himself to semi-stupefied peasants in desert regions?” ~The Portable Atheist

“Religion looks forward to the destruction of the world…. Perhaps half aware that its unsupported arguments are not entirely persuasive, and perhaps uneasy about its own greedy accumulation of temporal power and wealth, religion has never ceased to proclaim the Apocalypse and the day of judgment.” ~God Is Not Great

“Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.” ~God Is Not Great

“Human decency is not derived from religion. It precedes it.” ~God Is Not Great

“If religious instruction were not allowed until the child had attained the age of reason, we would be living in a quite different world. “ ~God Is Not Great

Though I do not agree with Mr Mclaren’s emergent version of Theology or Christianity , like Mr McLaren I’ve been reading Frank ( and Francis’s ) work for decades .. and his review of Frank’s book is beautifully written and intriguing making me wish I was willing to own the digital copy rather than hoping for a print version

Mr McLaren – In regards to Francis’s ‘ fall from grace ‘ into the abyss of the ‘ so called ‘ religious ( never ) right . As a Reformation Theologian/Apologist/Philosopher I was just as alarmed as you were when Francis seemingly went off the rails later in life ( ironically much as Martin Luther did when he suddenly turned anti – semitic ) after decades of being at the very forefront of Christian apologetics bringing Van Til’s concepts and ideas into a more understandable format as Christianity rapidly found itself under attack both from without ( atheism , agnosticism , New Age theology and relativism ) as well as within ( Liberals and Fundamentalist along with a religious relativism )

But unlike yourself and perhaps Frank as well I am unwilling to throw out the baby along with the bath water . Though we may never know what was going on in the heart and mind of Francis when he jumped into the abyss … the foundations he helped lay down previous to his ‘ derailment ‘ both by his own words as well as the words of his mentor Van Til remain relevant to this very day … as do his techniques and practices of the fine are of apologetics

So perhaps it is time to once again acknowledge Francis’s many accomplishments while fully recognizing his failings and humanity

FYI; Yes I have read your books . Yes we are theologically diametrically opposed on many if not most issues .. and yes I have participated in many think tanks and forums to develop an apologetic against emergent theology ( if there is one ) But I will defend to the death your right to believe , write and teach as you will

People who actually believe the Bible don’t agree with Frank Schaeffer. Those who do agree with Frank don’t agree with the Bible. So, it is not a surprise when someone like McLaren, who does not believe the Bible, endorses what Frank has said.

Well … I was about to sign off for the weekend … but then y’all went and did it Bryson . Wrong again . Adding yet another to the count putting you currently at 151

For your edification little man

Theres a particular aspect of theology called General Revelation that all Christian churches ( and all Biblical Christians ) to one extent or another adhere to . Not that you being steeped in bigoted fear , ignorance and stupidity would of ever heard of the theology never mind understand what it means … so heres the CliffNotes version ;

According to Scripture both NT & OT all people are creations of God created in His image regardless of faith and therefore all have some semblance or aspects of God’s Truths engrained into their very being . Not the Truth of Salvation mind you .. but God’s Truths never the less

Therefore as with Frank in particular .. though we may have many points of disagreement ,,, we have a lot of common ground as well ( the arts etc ) … both being part of God’s creation

Same with McLaren * I’ve even gone so far as to help create the apologetic currently in use to contradict McLaren’s misguided theology … yet we have enough common ground between us to hold many a civil , enjoyable and productive conversation should we chose to .

Therefore on the issues of commonality that do not directly contradict Scripture any Christian is free to agree with Frank ( or anyone else ) on those issues while maintaining the points we may disagree on without compromising one’s Beliefs in the slightest .

In other words little man of small mind and words … though I am living in the world I am still not of the world … and therefore am free to relate to any and all … as Christ did .. remembering that outside of the Apostles themselves He spent all His time with the sinners , tax collectors , fornicators , prostitutes etc . Gee Bryson … what a thought .. acting like Christ rather than a blithering fear addled xenophobic fool …

Now I know in light of who and what you are that idea is way beyond your volitional stupidity and fear addled bigotry / xenophobia to comprehend … but that is the Truth .. like it or not ..

Hmmm .. on 2nd thought though … lets up the count to 165… this last one’s stupid enough to garner at least another 14 points on top of the original one I was going to give you

* I’ll place odds like everything else you do not have a clue as to what McLaren has written nor what the Emergent Church even is .. never mind what it stands for ..

There might be a few things that Schaeffer and I would agree on. But having read a lot of his writings, and listened to many of his videos, it is safe to say our disagreements far outnumber and outweigh our agreements. For instance, Frank is an evolutionist, while I believe God created everything in six days. No agreement to be found there. Our theology and our politics are poles apart.

Although I never met them yet except through their books, I can feel your Mom and Dad THRILL all the way from Heaven to here as I “turn” the pages of your digital masterpiece that connects generations in art & beauty, which, at their best, is who Francis & Edith Schaeffer really were . . . or may I say in faith “are!”

Frank,
Good luck with your book. Whether it sells or not, it’s still a work of art and a thing of beauty. Your children and grandchildren will always treasure “Letter To Lucy,” as will many other people, as well. I’ll be talking to you outside the blogosphere. It’s becoming too much for my soul to bear. Vaya con Dios, Mi Amigo . . . you and everyone.
Love, 3:10

Thanks for inviting me to read Letter to Lucy. Thank you for inviting me to read Letter to Lucy. It’s actually the first multi-media book I ‘ve read on this iPad and I appreciate your clever use of the media textures. It’s been a while since I commented on your blog and I forgot what a ‘spirited’ debate goes on here. You describe a journey, and I believe we are all on a journey, even those who critize you with every turn (where do they get the time?) Across the globe and across history, what ideas or experiences people have had that they DON’T attribute to, or simply say is … God. Nina is divine, anyway, who would argue? And Camilla singing Handel is divine. Yet we march forth, two world wars behind us, spending trillions on unending current wars and stockpiled with what it’s inventor, quoting a scripture says is, ‘death, the destroyer or worlds.’ And yet we must become as little children.